Abstract
This paper examines how evangelical Christians viewed music as a potential means to enact social change as they were becoming a basis for the Religious Right during the decades that led up to the 1990s, when “culture wars” became prominent in the U.S. It focuses on the periodical, Christianity Today, initiated by the politically influential evangelical leader, Billy Graham, to assess the ways in which music was part of the culture wars. The writers for the Christian magazine demonstrated more inclusive attitudes toward rock music than the anti-rock Christian leaders of contemporary and earlier decades that have been documented and analyzed in previous research. Instead of denouncing rock music, the magazine writers utilized the popularity of the musical form to justify their beliefs and activities. At the same time, they also extended some of the ideas earlier critics put forward, such as valorizing classical music and focusing on the youth.
Author Information
Mikiko Tachi, Chiba University, Japan
Paper Information
Conference: IICAH2024
Stream: History/Historiography
This paper is part of the IICAH2024 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Tachi M. (2024) Music and the Culture Wars in the 1970s and 1980s U.S. ISSN: 2432-4604 – The IAFOR International Conference on Arts & Humanities – Hawaii 2024 Official Conference Proceedings https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2432-4604.2024.38
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2432-4604.2024.38
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